Google Traffic For Beginners

What is Google traffic?

As part of our ongoing series of articles aimed at absolute beginners, roi.com.au will explain what is meant by traffic on Google and how it works. Google traffic is a term you have probably heard used in relation to your (or another) website but traffic can relate to any search engine including Yahoo and Bing.

Essentially Google traffic is the number of visitors to your website. It is important to make a distinction between traffic in terms of visitors to your website and the live traffic updates for your locality available through Google Maps.

How does Google traffic work?

Without getting too complex, Google communicates with your browser through the use of cookies, which are text-based files stored on your computer. These files can be removed at any time by clearing your cache but that will not stop Google communicating with your browser – it will however influence how Google interprets the data presented, which is something we will discuss in a future article.

How is Google traffic measured?

A visit, commonly referred to as a session, is a completed interaction between your browser and a given website – in this occasion roi.com.au. The length of your current session is the time you spend viewing this site and Google will have determined it to have finished 30 minutes after your last activity on this site (for instance if you don’t click through to another page for 30 minutes, your session is deemed over).

Sessions are broken down into new and returning visitors – for the sake of this example, if your activity is idle for 30 minutes but you return after 45 minutes from the same computer you will be counted by Google as a separate visit and as a returning visitor.
Clearing your cache can confuse Google into mistaking a returning visit as new, but that’s part of the finer details of how Google works and is not something you need to worry too much about at this stage.

Traffic can be broken down in several ways through Google Analytics – by visitor, by traffic source, by content and by customisable reports including Goals and Funnels.

The main thing to remember is that traffic can be broken down into free organic traffic and paid-search results known as pay-per-click (Google AdWords).

What Google traffic do I want for my site?

Firstly, you want relevant traffic and more of it – more visits from people you want to read your site; buy from you; download a file or take away some piece of information that you have deemed worth creating a website for.

If you have a website, you can view and analyse all of the traffic that comes to your site through a Google Analytics account. If you don’t have an account it is strongly recommended that your set one up today – it’s FREE, the information is extremely valuable and sites like roi.com.au provide starter guides on how to use the tool.
Analytics allows you discover what parts of your site are and are not working – which pages attract visitors, what search term did they input into Google to end up on your site and why did they leave.

This is basic information and there is an entire reservoir of valuable information available on web traffic (generated through Google and other search engines). Knowing this information allows you to make changes where necessary to improve and refine how your site is viewed by the public and by Google.

Business benefits of better Google traffic

Learning more about Google, traffic, Analytics and how it all works and then applying what you know to your site can have a phenomenal effect on your website and as a result, your business. If you can successfully apply what you know and improve your sites rankings for key phrases relevant to your business, then you will see traffic increase. More, relevant traffic is viewed positively by Google and in turn improves your websites profile, which makes increasing traffic a little easier. Increased relevant traffic will increase sales leads and ultimately, grow profits.

Investing in AdWords campaigns is a quick way to increase traffic on your website, but it can prove costly and ineffective if not managed correctly. A comprehensive search engine optimisation strategy aimed at building organic search traffic is a better long-term approach. Please visit our SEO page for more information and tips on search engine optimisation. Stay tuned to roi.com.au for more on learning about how Google and web traffic works – or contact us on 1300 650 274 to discuss how we can help you get more of the right traffic to your site.